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When Parliament handed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act in 2025, successfully banning real-money on-line gaming nationwide, it didn’t simply redraw regulatory boundaries—it reset the trajectory of a sector that had been among the many fastest-growing segments of the digital financial system. What had been a uncommon shopper web success story—homegrown platforms with tens of tens of millions of customers, billions in enterprise capital and a brand new class of tech employment—instantly noticed its core enterprise mannequin rendered unlawful.
Fantasy sports activities, poker, rummy and cash-prize informal video games discovered their engines abruptly shut. Dream Sports’ Dream11, India’s largest and most recognisable fantasy platform, introduced the closure of its real-money operations, asking customers to withdraw balances as entry charges and money prizes disappeared in a single day.
Platforms resembling Mobile Premier League suspended paid contests. Zupee and several other informal gaming apps halted money codecs. Poker operators, together with Nazara Technologies-backed PokerBaazi and Rummy Circle, wound down real-money choices. For an trade that had supported lots of of 1000’s of jobs and generated vital tax revenues, the affect was quick—layoffs, restructuring and a pointy reassessment of India’s regulatory threat by traders.
Yet the regulation didn’t ban gaming outright. Non-monetary video games, esports and skill-based codecs with out money stakes have been explicitly permitted, reflecting the federal government’s try and separate leisure from wagering. That distinction grew to become the trade’s lifeline.
Faced with extinction or reinvention, gaming corporations started pivoting—typically reluctantly, typically ambitiously—in direction of fashions that prioritised engagement over entry charges, and communities over money swimming pools. But even right here, ambiguity persists. There stays little regulatory readability on whether or not platforms can legally run contests the place they acquire cash and supply prizes, even when positioned as skill-based or promotional, prompting many corporations to tread cautiously.
Free-to-play codecs, lengthy dominant globally however overshadowed in India by money contests, moved to the centre of many methods. Platforms like Zupee retained informal titles in free codecs, specializing in promoting, model partnerships and consumer retention slightly than prize swimming pools.
The metrics that mattered modified. Daily lively customers, time spent and repeat engagement changed gross gaming income because the trade’s major benchmarks.
One of the clearest alerts of how far this reinvention has gone is Zupee’s transfer into micro dramas, a fast-emerging class of brief, vertical, serialised storytelling optimised for cellular screens. According to a RedSeer Strategy Consultants report, the section is coming into a “J-curve” second, projected to develop 40 to 50 % yearly and attain round ₹4,000 crore by 2026.
Zupee’s newly launched Zupee Studio options one- to three-minute episodes throughout genres resembling romance, crime, comedy and fantasy, designed to drive ordinary viewing slightly than one-off engagement.
“Micro dramas extend the same philosophy we’ve followed in gaming into storytelling,” says Govind Mittal, chief spokesperson at Zupee. Built on the idea that India’s leisure future will likely be interactive, mobile-first and creator-led, the format opens up monetisation pathways starting from branded integrations and premium arcs to creator codecs and, ultimately, subscriptions. More importantly, he provides, it broadens the ecosystem Zupee is shaping—one the place gaming, leisure, creators and advertisers converge round time spent.
For some gamers, India’s regulatory clampdown accelerated ambitions that had existed quietly within the background. WinZO, for example, started pushing more durable into abroad markets the place real-money gaming is regulated slightly than prohibited, together with components of the US and Latin America. The firm is believed to have put these investments on wait-and-watch mode. “A lot of real money gaming companies are in wait-and-watch mode post the enactment of the Promotion & Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 before deciding what to do next. Companies are waiting to see the outcome of the Supreme Court in matters pertaining to past GST liability (where Supreme Court has reserved judgment in August 2025 after hearing all arguments) as well as clarity on possible overseas business structures, and permissible social games and esports formats,” says Jay Sayta, a know-how and gaming lawyer.
Others have taken a quieter route. They are monetising engineering capabilities by providing SaaS-style gaming infrastructure—starting from sport engines and compliance instruments to funds and engagement layers—to abroad operators. In impact, they’re promoting the picks and shovels of the worldwide gaming trade, even because the home market stays in flux.
Dream Sports selected a unique path. Rather than merely changing money contests with free video games, it started reimagining itself as a broader sports activities leisure platform aligned with India’s rising watch-party tradition.
“We’ve always believed that sport is fundamentally a shared experience,” Harsh Jain, co-founder and CEO of Dream11, instructed Forbes India lately. “The regulation changed the format, not the fan behaviour. People don’t just watch matches anymore—they react, discuss and celebrate them together.”
Instead of drafting fantasy groups for money, customers now be part of creator-led watch rooms throughout stay matches, take part in free-to-play predictions and polls, and work together by way of chat and reactions. Monetisation comes by means of promoting, model integrations and premium fan options, turning consideration and engagement into foreign money.
The regulatory reset has additionally reshaped the dialog round esports. By explicitly excluding non-monetary aggressive gaming from the ban, the regulation positioned esports in a regulatory candy spot. Sponsor-backed tournaments and professionally organised leagues have since drawn renewed curiosity from manufacturers and creators.
The long-term demand story stays intact. While India has solely round 10 million gaming consoles, it has near 750 million smartphones, guaranteeing that gaming—particularly mobile-first codecs—will all the time have a market.
Still, the ban is just one layer of uncertainty confronting the sector. Even as corporations pivot operationally, a far bigger monetary problem continues to loom: The unresolved GST dispute. Since 2023, gaming companies have been contesting the federal government’s resolution to levy 28 % GST on the total face worth of bets slightly than on platform commissions.
Tax calls for operating into tens of 1000’s of crores have been issued, making a parallel disaster that predates the ban however stays unresolved.
For founders and traders, the GST case has turn out to be as consequential because the gaming prohibition itself. Even corporations which have exited real-money codecs or shifted abroad stay uncovered to legacy tax claims. The uncertainty has frozen capital allocation, delayed exits and cooled international investor enthusiasm for what was as soon as seen as one of many world’s most promising gaming markets.
Not everybody has accepted the brand new order quietly. Some corporations have challenged the ban, arguing that it fails to adequately distinguish between video games of talent and playing. A23, among the many nation’s largest skill-gaming platforms, has moved the Karnataka High Court, setting the stage for a chronic authorized debate. A small set of customers has taken their companies to abroad platforms like 1xbet the place cash is transferred by means of mule accounts.
Six months on, the ripple results are nonetheless being felt. Investment into Indian gaming startups has slowed. Talent has dispersed into adjoining sectors. Enforcement actions in opposition to unlawful betting web sites have intensified.
Yet, the story of India’s gaming trade after the ban just isn’t one among collapse however of recalibration underneath strain.
Free-to-play fashions, esports, micro dramas, SaaS exports and social watch-party experiences are actually forming the pillars of a reimagined gaming financial system. The GST verdict stays the ultimate—and maybe most consequential—piece of the puzzle. But for founders and traders bruised by regulatory shock, one lesson is obvious: In India’s digital financial system, adaptability just isn’t elective. The guidelines might change, however the sport, in a single kind or one other, goes on.
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